Makar Macouldn’t.

No. 8’s shifts became as labored as Homer Simpson running up five flights of stairs. Cale Makar, the Avalanche’s star defenseman, didn’t even come out to the bench at the start of Game 5’s epic overtime finish. At one point, All Hail Cale a wince you felt from a distance, pain even national TV cameras couldn’t hide.

How do you know when it’s your year? When it’s your Stanley Cup? While the best D-man on planet Earth could barely hold a stick, Brett Kulak sticks it to The Wall of St. Paul.

“You always like to dream about it, but like you say, the player I am, I’m not the guy everyone’s looking down the bench at, like, ‘All right, get out there and go win it for us,'” said Kulak, the hard-charging but soft-spoken D-man whose fourth career postseason goal — in 107 playoff games — was his biggest, an overtime winner that sent Colorado to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2022.

“No, it’s been good. It was a tough series. That’s a good (Minnesota) team over there. So for us to play the way we did and get the job done — and then, just for me, (it was) a special goal in my career, for sure.”

A gorgeous one, too. A rocket launched from the right face-off dot, set up by a whirling Martin Necas, who’d jumped onto the ice when he realized the Avs were a man short.

“I just saw (that) we’re coming back in our zone. And, you know, we had four guys, so I was like, ‘Might as well jump there, you know? I don’t care,'” Necas recalled later when asked about his second helper Wednesday. “So yeah, it worked out … great play by (Parker Kelly), banging it to me, and then I just did whatever I saw.”

He went around Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s net, came out the other side, and saw Kulak in the face-off circle.

“We built on momentum from the third (period), carried (that) into OT,” Kulak said. “And just for me personally, Marty carried it up, (got) his wheels going around the O-Zone, and I just kind of was able to slide into an open spot in the weak side of the ice, and credit to him. (He had) good vision and put it right in the perfect spot for me to get a good shot.”

And even sweeter redemption. Earlier in the evening, for the second Minnesota goal of the night with 8:57 left in the opening period. Colorado stared at a 3-0 deficit after the first intermission. It was Game 3’s dumpster fire, compressed into 20 minutes of offal.

“Yeah, I mean, you get buried a couple goals (down) in the first, and they’re all over it,” Kulak said of the Avs’ crummy start. “You’ve got no time and space, and you feel like it’s going to be a long night.

“(So you) just kind of chip away, one shift at a time, and you start to get the momentum, and things start to shift.”

Trailing 3-0, a defense that had half a Makar or no Sam Malinski at all somehow held the Wild to seven shots over the final 44 minutes.

“(That’s) huge, yeah,” said coach Jared Bednar, whose team improved to 8-1 through its first two playoff series of 2026. “I mean, you can’t understate that.

“When you look at (Brent) Burns’ series, I mean, because you’re without (Josh) Manson early. (Manson) comes back, you’re without (Sam) Malinski, you’ve got Cale fighting through stuff. I mean, there’s only six (defensemen), right? And guys need to step up. We were four guys rolling on the bench … I think Burns’ (Minnesota) series was incredible, and obviously Kulak’s was the same.”

“So how is Cale feeling?” I asked.

Bednar paused.

“Cale is OK,” the coach replied.

He sure didn’t look it late. Especially after Makar and Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello had collided behind the net in the third period. The Avs’ star defender quickly grimaced, dropped his stick and appeared to grab his right shoulder in agony. Then he headed to the tunnel. Gingerly.

“It’s not just one guy who steps in and takes over the minutes,” said Kulak, now tied for second this postseason among Avs defenders in points (five) while ranking third in ice time per game (20:48). “I think everyone has to chip in, and the whole team has to just play solid hockey.”

“Was that your first (goal)?” MacKinnon asked Kulak during their news conference.

“Yeah,” the defenseman replied.

“So another guy,” MacKinnon said with an almost bubbly grin. “I mean, that’s a great stat. You know, that’s the stat you want to see — team stats and, you know, everyone’s chipping in.”

How’s this for chipping in? Kulak is just the seventh guy in NHL history to have his first goal for a new club be a series-ender in the postseason. He’s also the 16th different Avs player to score this series, tying an NHL record.

“I love it, I love it,” Bednar said of scoring depth that overwhelmed a Minnesota roster without Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin. “That’s hard to beat.

“When you have different guys stepping up every night, you can’t key on one guy. There’s no sort of coming in to play our team and (saying) like, ‘Well, if we shut down the (Nathan) MacKinnon line, we’re going to win.'”

These Avs can beat you with speed, with size, with strength, with cunning, with defense, with goaltending, by land, by air, or by sea. General manager Chris MacFarland’s trade deadline additions — Nicolas Roy, Nazem Kadri, Nick Blankenburg — loom larger by the week, letter-perfect finishing touches to a core of Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Necas, Gabriel Landeskog and The Lumberyard between the pipes.

And there’s Kulak, who came over from Pittsburgh in the Sam Girard swap, now only the third guy in NHL annals to play with MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. The 32-year-old’s last two postseasons ended in the Stanley Cup Final with the Edmonton Oilers. Dude knows what this is supposed to look like. What it’s supposed to feel like.

“I think at (this) point, it just becomes a group effort throughout everybody that’s going,” Kulak said. “I mean, Cale is battling out there. He’s playing really well, and it (stinks) having Sammy (Malinski) out. He’s a big piece of the team, too. So when guys are coming and going, and you’re missing a couple bodies here and there, other guys just step up and fill the void.”

Makar somehow logged 25 minutes Wednesday night while being held together by duct tape and piano wire. Manson toughed it out through 19:19. Burns, who was born in 1985 but wears a beard from 1885, put in 19:47 of ice time. In May and June, it doesn’t matter who carries the flag, just so long as that bad boy, however tattered, gets over the line.

The NHL announced the salary cap ceiling for the 2026-27 season will be $104 million, which was the reported and projected number. That is an $8.5 million increase from this season, and the Avs have already committed a chunk of that space.

Here’s the good news: This Avalanche team looks primed for a run at the Stanley Cup, and nearly all of the key figures from this group are already under contract for next season. The biggest storyline entering the offseason doesn’t even involve a contract for next season.

Here’s the less good news: The Avs have precious little cap space available this offseason, unless a current regular under contract gets moved. And nearly $2.3 million for next year is gone because the bill for this roster went a little over the limit. It was legal because Brent Burns signed an incentive-laden one-year contract. That’s where the overage is from, but the Avs will be more than happy to work around that issue next year if this group keeps winning.

The Avs have 17 guys from the current roster under contract through 2027 or beyond. They have a little less than $3 million in cap space available, about $2.98 million, . There are four unrestricted free agents — Burns, Brett Kulak, Nick Blankenburg on defense, Joel Kiviranta at forward. Two forwards, Jack Drury and Zakhar Bardakov, are restricted free agents.

So yeah, the players, coaches and fans are all focused on this Avalanche team’s chase of a fourth championship in franchise history. But Chris MacFarland and his group in the front office always have one eye towards the future.

The 2026-27 team should look very similar to the one, especially if the Avs get past the Minnesota Wild and into the Western Conference Final or beyond.

Here are the biggest questions for the offseason, barring any significant injuries in the coming weeks:

Will Cale Makar sign a new megadeal?

Makar has one more year left on his contract, but that makes him eligible to sign a new deal starting July 1. The cap ceiling is expected to keep rising at unprecedented levels — to $113.5 million in the first year of Makar’s new contract and $123 million in the second season.

The maximum cap hit for the 2026-27 season is $20.8 million. But just for reference, by Year 2 of Makar’s new deal, if the ceiling is $123 million, the max cap hit that year will be $24.6 million (which, by the way, will be the first season of Connor McDavid’s next contract).

Nathan MacKinnon famously said the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded that Makar should get $20 million. There’s little question that he would be worth it. The best players in the world have always been underpaid in the salary cap era, from Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin to MacKinnon and McDavid.

Kirill Kaprizov pushed the artificial ceiling on contracts to $17 million per year. Will Makar, or Quinn Hughes, who also has one year left, establish a new standard?

The Avs will want to get a deal done as soon as possible. Makar’s deal won’t have a huge effect on the 2026-27 team, though it could restrict which players the club might pursue to some extent.

Will they be able to keep Kulak?

Kulak has been a great fit. He’s also probably made himself some money this season, with another strong postseason after the previous two in Edmonton. He’ll also be 33 years old next year.

His current contract is at $2.75 million per year. If Kulak really wants to stay and was willing to take a shorter deal and at something close to that figure, the Avs can make it work by trading someone else. Could two or three years at $3.5-4 million work for both sides? Maybe.

But, given the amount of cap space other teams are going to have, and the dearth of quality free agents available, it’s also possible that another team would offer him double his current cap hit on a deal that will run into his late 30s. If that happens, the Avs would almost certainly have to thank him for this run and wish him luck.

Will they be able to keep Drury?

The Avs have other guys who could be the No. 4 center next year behind MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri. Nicolas Roy or Parker Kelly could play there. Bardakov could be given another shot at the role. And the Avs could reassess where things stand before the deadline.

But Drury is a really, really good No. 4 center. And he’s a restricted free agent, which means one outcome is the Avs bring him back on a one-year deal, and then he gets to test the open market the following summer. He does have arbitration rights, but Drury didn’t have great numbers this year. It’s harder to argue with intangibles and how much the coach loves you in an arbitration hearing.

If the Avs want to lock him into a longer deal, it would almost certainly mean another regular under contract has to leave. Drury does feel like the type of player who, if the Avs were to win the Cup, would be very in demand if the Avs decided to make him available in a trade.

Will Burns and the Avs want to run it back?

Burns will turn 42 next March. This could be his last ride. But … he’s played pretty well in a lesser role, been a huge hit in the dressing room and most of all, the guy just loves to play. If he does come back, he’ll also be able to take aim at Phil Kessel’s record ironman streak. He’s 57 (regular-season) games away.

If he wants to play, and the Avs want him back, a similar deal to this one (one year, $1 million-ish in salary with incentives) seems pretty easy to put together.

How will the Avs find some flexibility?

The Avs don’t have a bad contract on the books right now. And the longer they play in this tournament, the more the value of some of their players will rise. That could be an issue with trying to retain Kulak, or even Blankenburg if he gets an extended postseason look. But that does help if the Avs need to trade someone.

The most obvious someone is Ross Colton, who has played well since returning to the lineup but has had two snakebitten seasons in a row and was a healthy scratch to start the playoffs. He has one year left at $4 million, which is a fine number for a middle-six forward. And there could be plenty of teams interested in his services, if the Avs decided to prioritize Kulak or need to replace him. Colton could also be the odd man out if the Avs want to do a longer deal with Drury.

Sure, there were other great stories. The Buffalo Sabres returning to the playoffs, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the Pittsburgh Penguins back to relevance and the rise of Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Schaefer are just a few.

But the Avs broke the league for half a season with a historic start. They’ve been atop the NHL standings every day since Nov. 1. The 121 points is among the top 10 in league history.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the most goals. The Avs as a team scored the most and allowed the fewest.

It goes beyond just the on-ice results. The Nordiques-inspired uniforms were the most talked-about fashion choice. Colorado won the trade deadline by adding Brett Kulak, Nicolas Roy and then Nazem Kadri at the last minute.

Even the introduction of a remix of as the team’s entrance music at Ball Arena, a nod to the 30-year anniversary with an all-time classic from 1996, was a huge success and immediately among the 3-5 best in the NHL.

Now, it’s time to find out if this will be remembered as one of the greatest teams of all-time. Win 16 more games, and it will be true.

“I think everyone understands the reality of how hard it is to win,” Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “I think (the regular season) just makes you hungrier to prove it. It wasn’t just a fluke. It wasn’t just, ‘We got lucky and won some games and all that.’ I think we all know what kind of team we are when we play the right way.

“I think the mentality is just don’t squander this opportunity, this lineup, this expectation.”

Every NHL player wants to win the Stanley Cup. None of them cares about style points or how the path to get there will be remembered. It’s the same with fans of every NHL team.

No one in St. Louis cares if the 2019 Blues aren’t remembered as one of the all-time greats. No one in Dallas cares if the first thing some people outside of Texas think about with the 1999 Stars is Brett Hull’s skate.

Every Cup winner is a champion forever.

But some have been more revered than others throughout history. There are certain years where the champion is just synonymous with all-time excellence, even decades later. It’s 1977 and the Canadiens, 2002 and the Red Wings. It’s early, but 2022 and the Avalanche is a strong contender.

The Avs have put themselves in a position to be included in that group.

“It’d be special,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think for us, it’s don’t look too far ahead. Cliche as that sounds. I think it starts with L.A. It starts with Sunday at 1 p.m. and it’s taking care of business in the first period. I think it’s easy this time of year to get over-excited and forecast and watch other series and see what’s going on, but I think the biggest thing is just no distractions and worry about the group we have within here.

“I think if we do the right things and play to our game plan, trust each other, play to our identity, great things are going to happen.”

Winning so much and in such dominant fashion has put the Avalanche in this position. The Avs stopped being a team that could win the Cup and became the team that should win the Cup months ago.

The trade deadline additions and the strong finish only reinforced that. The expectation to win a championship has been the same inside the Colorado locker room since Day One of training camp. The external expectations have risen dramatically since then.

“I think the group knew what we had, and even more so after the deadline,” Avs center Brock Nelson said. “But I think we’ve got a pretty good mindset that even with trying to set out to be the best team in the league for the regular season, we never really strayed from (our focus). Obviously a couple off games, but I think we stuck with it. And the main focus is to win a Stanley Cup. We know we’re not there yet, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. One singular focus now, starting with this first round.”

No team is destined to win the Stanley Cup, especially in the salary cap era. Even the most dominant regular-season teams that did complete the job — think 2013 Blackhawks and 2022 Avalanche — still had some moments of adversity along the way.

Everyone also remembers the most dominant teams that didn’t reach the finish line. Think the 2011 Canucks, the last club to finish first in goals for and first in fewest goals against. Or the 2019 Lightning and 2023 Bruins, which both flamed out in all-time first-round upsets.

Barring terrible injury luck, there isn’t any middle ground left for this Avalanche team. It’s either win 16 games and become one of the all-time greats, or this group joins the latter list of what ifs and what could have beens.

“There has to be a mentality there, that we’re willing to go and earn what we want,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re not deserving of anything. It’s all going to be about the way we play and being willing to earn it.

“I think all of our guys understand that. We’ve been through some heartache here in the first few rounds of playoffs, and I think that’s still fresh in our minds.”

“I don’t like seven (defensemen),” said the Avalanche star, whose West-leading crew hosts Dallas, , on Wednesday night at Ball Arena. “Different D pairs every shift isn’t great. The flow is off, for sure.”

Communication? Also off.

“We need everyone on the same page,” MacKinnon stressed after a puzzling, plodding 7-2 home loss to Pittsburgh late Monday. “We need more communication before the game (and in) meetings. Really know what we’re going to do over and over again …  it felt like we’ve been pretty good, and then Winnipeg (happened) and then (Monday) was just off again … can’t really explain it. It’s been like that all season.”

Strategy? Also, also off.

“Lines and (defensive) pairs need to sit down and go through clips and figure out what our system is right now,” MacKinnon offered. “Too much passing around the perimeter. The only good shift of the game we had was when (Brent Burns) took four shots from the strong side and then they (got) one on the net. So that’s how we have to play. We’re too perimeter. We don’t shoot enough. We haven’t had 30 shots in four games now. Which is very, very rare for us.”

Lineups? Also, also, also off.

“I think chemistry matters, and if a guy’s used to playing center, filling in … it’s no one’s fault,” MacKinnon continued. “(We’ve had) a lot of different line combinations lately, for everybody, so it’s hard. It sounds like an excuse, but (Monday) was just bad, too… It was one of those nights that just (stunk).”

By cracky, did Nate and the Avs stink up the joint Monday before a full house ?

The defense stunk. The juice stunk. The power play stunk, although we’re used to that. Scott Wedgewood stunk in goal (three goals allowed in five shots faced), which we’re not used to at all. Mackenzie Blackwood replaced Wedgie after Colorado trailed 3-1 and stunk slightly less.

“Guys getting beat, guys getting out-competed, just not digging in enough,” was how coach Jared Bednar explained it later. “And we’re giving up easy chances … that start is not on (Wedgewood) at all. Like, what’s he gonna do? Like some of the chances that we’re giving up are guys all alone at the net-front, kind of the same as Edmonton. We just talked about it, right? So we fixed it for Winnipeg, and then it’s back again (Monday).”

For Bednar, that Penguins tilt was damning on two fronts. The first was the performance itself — a discombobulated mess, a good hockey team making October mistakes in mid-March. The Avs handed the locals a perfect storm of bad: Sleepy goaltending, lousy shooting (two goals in 27 attempts), and professionals playing like complete strangers defensively. Which, to hear MacKinnon tell it, maybe they were.

The second pain was the timing. Between a disastrous first period and a sloppy second on Chopper Circle, Dallas got busy falling at home to Utah, 6-3, ending a 15-point streak for the hard-charging Stars.

The Mammoth handed Dallas its first regulation loss since January 22 and its first home defeat in two months. Monday evening was a golden chance to open up at least a little breathing space before Wednesday’s visit from Dallas (42-15-10), which trails Colorado (44-13-9) by just three points (97-94), even though the Avs have a game in hand.

The Penguins (34-18-15) were at the end of a grueling, four-city, six-day road trip. Oh, and were playing without Sidney Crosby. So, yeah, not good. Not good at all.

“I know everyone is talking about Wednesday,” Colorado center Brock Nelson mused, “but this one (Monday) was equally as big.”

The Avs didn’t show it. Colorado managed to force a tie game — 1-1 — for all of 15 seconds before Pittsburgh’s Anthony Mantha zipped past the entire Avs defense and, with Cale Makar riding his back, slotted home a 2-1 Penguins lead just 4:23 into the tilt.

About eight-and-a-half minutes later, Evgeni Malkin was left all alone at point-blank range to fire the visitors into a 3-1 cushion. Bednar responded by yanking Wedgewood, only for Elmer Soderblom to beat Blackwood 43 seconds later to make it a 4-1 contest. And no contest at all, really.

“That kind of (stuff)  happens, but you don’t want it to, no matter what,” Wedgewood told me after the game. “And yeah, I mean, if you dwell on it, you’re in a much worse situation. I got a good (eye) on that. I just lost it.”

“Did you guys get caught looking ahead at all?” I wondered.

“I mean, (Wednesday is) obviously important,” Wedgewood replied. “Everyone knows it’s on schedule. It’s circled. You know what it means … (You) get up and prepare. But no, there’s still a lot of hockey before the games really, really matter, right?”

Still, some games matter a heck of a lot more than others. The best three teams in hockey all play in the Central Division. I hate the Presidents’ Trophy more than the next guy, but that No. 1 seed has more weight this time around.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Avs topping the Stanley Cup bracket would also condemn Dallas and Minnesota (38-18-12) to play one another in the first round — an absolute cage fight that, in the NHL’s infinite wisdom, would immediately eliminate somebody who could win the whole thing. You know, the way the Avs were eliminated in seven games by Dallas 11 months ago. If the Stars leapfrog Colorado in the standings? Hello, St. Paul.

“Yeah, it was a big game (Monday),” MacKinnon said. “That was a game we kind of had to win. So, hopefully, we can bounce back.”

Hopefully, Bednar smells what Nate Dogg is cooking. Hopefully, he listens.

“Some of those breakdowns, I think, can be easily cured,” the coach reflected. “But, I mean, I think we’re going (to have to) talk more and we’ve got to get more competitive. A couple of them, we got beat up the ice (to have) guys all alone. A couple of them, we got beat off the walls (to have) guys all alone. And it’s just not good enough.”

It won’t be against Dallas, either. We’ll know Thursday morning whether Pittsburgh was a wake-up call or a warning siren. Buckle up.

Whether it was substandard goaltending, poor defending, great play from the opponent, bad luck or a hearty mixture of all the above, the Colorado Avalanche had its worst night of the season Monday night at Ball Arena. Evgeni Malkin had two goals and an assist, a vintage performance with Sidney Crosby out of the lineup, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rolled past the Avs in a 7-2 shocker.

“The disappointing part for me is you’re down 4-2 (after the first period), you like what you’re doing offensively and you should come out in the second with a push,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Our game went completely the opposite way. (Four) shots (in the second), no push, one and done on every entry. It just looked like we wanted to try and skill our way through it.

“They just played the right way the whole game, and the score ends up where it ends up.”

While Colorado carried the play in the first period, this one got away from the home side in the middle frame. Erik Karlsson scored on a harmless-looking shot from the right wing midway through the period to give the visitors a 5-2 lead. When the Avalanche turned a 3-on-2 shorthanded break into a turnover and a Bryan Rust breakaway goal at the other end with 3:40 left in the second, the Penguins had six goals on just 14 shots.

When Noel Acciari made it a 7-2 game midway through the final period, there was a mass exodus of burgundy-and-blue clad fans — something that hasn’t happened here this season.

“A couple too many … just felt like plays where we gave them easy looks,” Brock Nelson said. “I’m sure people will say goaltending or something like that but there’s none of them that are on them. We have to be better in front of them, sharper execution and just get to our game.”

MacKinnon notches 110th point

Malkin took a penalty during his first shift after serving a five-game suspension for hitting Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin with his stick. He came out of the box after the first fruitless Avalanche power play of the night and scored 13 seconds later with a backhanded shot that appeared to surprise Scott Wedgewood at 3:01 of the first.

Nathan MacKinnon got that one back 67 seconds later. Martin Necas set him up in the high slot, and after faking a slap shot, MacKinnon rifled a wrister past Pittsburgh goalie Arturs Silovs. It was his league-leading 45th goal of the season.

That was also MacKinnon’s 110th point of the season. He is the first player with four consecutive seasons of 110 or more points since Wayne Gretzky finished a run of 13 straight years in 1991-92. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov will match the feat with four more points.

Anthony Mantha scored 15 seconds later, getting behind the Avs defense and putting one past Wedgewood before the MacKinnon goal announcement was complete. When Egor Chinakhov got between Josh Manson and Nick Blankenburg to corral a bouncing puck on an offensive rush, he found Malkin alone in front of the net for his second goal of the night and a 3-1 lead at 13:00.

That was the end of Wedgewood’s night after three goals on five shots allowed.

“The goals and chances that we’re giving up are just blatant — guys getting beat, guys getting out competed, just not digging in enough,” Bednar said. “We’re giving up easy chances. That start is not on (Wedgewood) at all. Like, what’s he going to do?”

Mackenzie Blackwood replaced him and didn’t fare much better.

Elmer Soderblom scored 43 seconds later. He collected his first goal since joining the Penguins before the trade deadline when he deposited the rebound of the first shot Blackwood faced just inside the left post. At that point, Pittsburgh led 4-1 despite only seven shots on goal.

Brent Burns got one back 38 seconds later. His shot from the right point went in off a Pittsburgh stick at 14:21 of the first. It was his 10th goal of the season. Burns became only the second defenseman in NHL history to score double-digit goals in a season after turning 40 years old. Nicklas Lidstrom did it at 40 and 41 for the Detroit Red Wings at the end of his career.

At that point, this was a wild back-and-forth affair and Colorado had carried the play for much of it. The Avs finished the first period down two goals but up 17-7 on the shot clock.

Instead of another comeback, the home team’s play deteriorated in the final two periods and left the Avs with a game on the short list for worst of the season.

And left Colorado with a day to stew about it before the Dallas Stars come to Denver for the latest, biggest showdown of the season between the NHL’s two best clubs.

“Every game is crucial right now,” Nelson said. “I know everyone is talking about Wednesday, but this one was equally as big. We have to find a way to bounce back.”

Just this season alone, Kulak has taken shifts with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard in Edmonton and Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in Pittsburgh.

“I’m pretty fortunate,” Kulak said Wednesday morning, after being traded to Colorado for Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick. “Each team carries a handful of guys that have around the league long time, lots of experience. So for me, you just come in, and I want to try to just absorb as much experience and wisdom and see how these guys go about their business and apply it to my career.”

Kulak had his first chance Wednesday morning to skate with the Avs at Delta Center ahead of the club’s first game back from the Olympic break against the Mammoth. He was expecting to spend an off day Tuesday in Pittsburgh with his family, resting and preparing for a stretch run with the surprising Penguins, who are in second place in the Metro Division.

Instead, he is playing for his third team this season — and moving his family across the continent for the second time in 10 weeks.

“To be honest, I was pretty surprised we got moved again, just the way the team is rolling,” Kulak said. “I thought at least I would probably at least finish out the year there. That is where my mind was at. But, this game and this league — it’ll surprise you when you least expect it and that was the case again.”

“We did it a couple months ago, from Edmonton to Pittsburgh. It’s a lot of phone calls, lots of logistics things, trying to organize. My wife and kids are kind of left to pick up the pieces. I move here and just bring my hockey bag and away I go. But there’s still lots to change. A lot happened yesterday, and it’ll be a busy few days for sure.”

Kulak played almost exclusively with Letang since being traded to Pittsburgh on Dec. 12. He also played a lot with Bouchard during the past two postseasons, which both resulted in Edmonton reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

He is a defense-first defenseman, but that experience playing with two of the best offensive-minded guys at the position could come in handy with the Avalanche. Coach Jared Bednar has already mentioned the idea of playing Kulak with Cale Makar in certain matchups during two media interviews within 24 hours of the trade.

“If you go back to playoffs two years ago and he had a great playoffs last year,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They’re in the Stanley Cup Final twice. He’s playing with all kinds of different guys. I think he has the ability to defend top guys in the league, and not only in the regular season, but in the playoffs and do a nice job.

“I just think it provides us some matchup strengths that maybe we didn’t have with Girard. They’re completely different players, but the size, length, reach, he’s a really good defender off the rush and in zone. He protects the net in front really well. Those are things we could get better at, and I think he’s a guy that can help us do that.”

Kulak has also spent a lot of time during his career in a depth role, but during the 2025 playoffs the Oilers had to ask more of him. He averaged more than 23 minutes per game during Edmonton’s run to the Cup Final, second on the team to Bouchard.

He has never averaged more than 20:32 per contest during the regular season, but an injury for Mattias Ekholm thrust him into a bigger spotlight.

“It was awesome for me,” Kulak said. “The playoffs is always the best time of the year. The hockey is intense. Every night is a battle, and to just take on that role that I was given last year in the playoffs, it was special times. You’re having the most fun playing hockey when you’re involved to that level of the games, and the team’s winning and and you’re chasing after the Stanley Cup. Exciting times, and I’m looking to kind of get back to that.”

Kulak debuted with the Avs Wednesday night playing with Sam Malinski, another player with a similar playing style to Letang. His early review of how Colorado wants to play was a positive one.

There wasn’t much time for him to get up to speed, but the Avs have five contests in the next seven days so game reps will come fast and furious for him.

“I don’t want him thinking too much, but there’s a lot of similarities between the last two clubs that he’s played with and ours,” Bednar said. “So that’ll be a work in progress over the next few days. We gave him the basics this morning. He was able to see the pre-scout meeting this morning and … that was a little bit more in depth, because I wanted him to see some stuff. (Nolan Pratt) sat down with him. We’ll go over penalty kill with him a little bit, and then turn him loose and let him go play.”

“We need guys to come in that (locker room) that have great attitude,” the Broncos’ Pro Bowl blocker, told me Monday morning at Ball Arena, just before the big guy took the stage “(We need them) to have a work ethic to come in here and fit into our culture.

“Because our culture is special. And when you have a great culture, you don’t want to put somebody in it (where) they can ruin it.”

An Eagle Scout, trustworthy and loyal to the last, helped set the tone for the defending AFC West champs. Did you know the man who kept Bo Nix’s blind side clean last fall — zero sacks allowed, according to Pro Football Focus, — received scouting’s highest honor back in 2008?

All scouts who reach Eagle level have to complete a service project first. Bolles made toy cars to be donated to children in Mexico, delivered personally by a local Santa Claus.

“And it was really cool to see the kids’ faces of the final products,” Bolles said. “And (Santa) would pack them all up — we would’ve put them in this big red sack. And he would fly to Mexico and deliver cars to all these rural areas.”

“So, basically,” I said, “you were the world’s biggest elf.”

Santa’s not-so-little helper smiled at that one. on No. 72 in blue.

“The moral of the story is, you can’t give up on what’s important in life,” Bolles told the kids on Monday. “You’ve got to find your why, why you do what you do. I learned that early on.”

And those lessons stuck. Scouting Colorado gave Bolles an award commemorating his Eagle Scout days. Then it handed him a trophy shaped like a round, wooden slab, as if cut from the trunk of some mighty tree.

“Maybe back then, I didn’t appreciate (the Boy Scouts) as much as I do now,” Bolles said. “Because I think it teaches you so much as a man — teaching you to be disciplined and learning the local laws of where you live. And from doing that to doing a service project to get your Eagle Scout (requirements). Just giving back to the community is truly what scouts is about.”

Whether because of Payton or in spite of him, the Broncos have piled up a lot of guys who are easy to root for. The veterans, especially. Courtland Sutton shook off injuries and inconsistency to lead the orange and blue out of the wilderness and into the sunshine. Alex Singleton is as forthright and funny off the field as he is firm and flinty on it.

But has anyone in Dove Valley, or maybe anyone in Denver sports, come as far as Bolles has over the last seven years?

All the crapola Riley Moss gets now, Bolles took for months. NFLPenalties.com, which tracks game-by-game infractions, credited the Broncos tackle in 2018 with committing 10 penalties, nine of them holding calls, and another 10 flags in ’19.

Since 2022, he’s averaged 3.75 holding flags per season —only about one a month, give or take. Pro Football Focus’ scouts said he went sackless over 803 pass-blocking snaps and gave him the best pass-protection grade (91.0) of any NFL offensive lineman.

He’s gone from being Mr. Available, to paraphrase John Elway, to Mr. Essential, a master craftsman who worked his tail off to become the best at his trade.

Kirby sucked it up and went back to work.

What’s that? Who’s Kirby? That’s the nickname a Scoutmaster gave Bolles some two decades ago,

Long story short, a teenaged Bolles was on a grueling mountain hike with his troop, and his elders challenged him to finish the darn thing.

“And I said, ‘Well, I’m just going to suck it up and get up this mountain,'” Bolles recalled. “So (‘Kirby’) was my nickname.”

It’s not how many times you get knocked down. It’s the times you climb right back up that hill again.

Bolles knows plenty about getting up — during those scouting years, he also was a youth hockey player up in Utah, an unabashed puckhead.

So, yeah, early Sunday, the one his wife put on social media, came from the heart. And from the past.

“I loved it. It was fascinating,” Bolls said. “All my family played, so growing up was just, (all the time), it was hockey.

“I remember when Sidney Crosby, when he was with Reebok back in the day,

Bolles’ game was legit, too. He did travel teams. Mini Mites. Mites. Squirts. Bantams. All the way through roughly age 16. He was a defenseman originally.

“And then they moved me to center,” he continued, “so that I could body off the guy to get the puck back to our defense on the open draws, And then I played left wing.”

Can you imagine the forechecks?

“And that’s sort of why I stopped,” Bolles explained. “Because my feet just started growing. And then I’m (like), ‘Do you guys have size 15 skates?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s not really a size of skate that we normally use.'”

Hey, the NHL’s loss was ����apountry’s gain. Eight years ago, few Broncomaniacs were rocking a 72 jersey in public. Once Bolles is done in Denver, that 72 is going into the Ring of Fame.

Although the ring GB wants most And the sort of diamonds that twinkle back like a mountain sky at night.

“I remember one of our (Scouting) leaders would drop us off in the middle of somewhere and we had to navigate ourselves back with the compass,” Bolles chuckled. “And who uses the compass now? These are all life lessons … just all the life lessons that I learned have truly helped me become the man I am today.”

Bolles was a finalist for the NFL’s first Protector of the Year Award. It went to instead. Roger Goodell should demand a recount.

Team USA and Canada advanced to Sunday’s gold medal game in Italy.

Yes, please.

This is the real heated rivalry. It is 4 Nations Face-Off, the sequel.

But let’s be clear, Canada needs this more than the U.S. The Americans are underdogs with attitude, a team capable of winning, but failure will not define them like, say, a Super Bowl.

That is what this is for Canada.

An entire country is counting on Nathan MacKinnon and Co. to deliver a golden moment. The Americans are trying to win their first gold medal since the 1980 Miracle on Ice.

But there is a real difference. There .

It was exactly what the United States needed with the economy tanking and the Cold War frigid as ever. It was a “Rocky” movie come to life. The Italian Stallion vs. Drago. Mike Eruzione vs. Vladimir Myshkin (Thank you for benching Vladislav Tretiak).

The Americans stunned the Soviet Union in the semifinals, a team that clobbered them 10-3 in an exhibition game in New York City a few days before.

The victory marked the first time “U-S-A!” chants broke out at a sporting event. The support Sunday morning will be enormous, but the Americans are no longer The Little Engine That Could.

. They are not college kids from the top programs in the Midwest and East. They are pros. They want this gold for country, sure. But they want bragging rights in the sport.

The Canadians are a team operating under the premise of gold medal or bust. Their roster looks like the New York Yankees from the early 1930s. The future Hall of Famers list starts with Sidney Crosby, who hopes to play in the finale despite an injury, and includes Connor McDavid and the Avs’ MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

MacKinnon blasted a one-timer in a greasy 3-2 semifinal victory against Finland with 35 seconds remaining. It was not just a great goal, but a legacy play.

Olympic gold is the lone accomplishment missing on MacKinnon’s resume. The pressure on the Canadians is enormous.

Knowing what MacKinnon, Makar and Devon Toews mean to the Avs, it is only natural to want them to meet this moment. But there is the little matter of Brock Nelson starring for the Americans.

This is US vs. U.S.

Best on Best.

When the Canadians pull on the burgundy and blue sweater, they are our guys. But on Sunday, it is all about the red, white and blue.

Bad Leadership: MLB players deserve better. As the sport braces for a lockout after this season, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark resigned after an internal investigation revealed he had an inappropriate relationship with his sister-in-law, a union employee for the past three years. Seriously? What is with this position? Lloyd Howell Jr. quit as the head of the NFLPA after expensing a visit to Tootsie’s Cabaret. Bruce Meyer was named the interim director for the MLB players. His best is needed at a time when support for a salary cap has never been higher among owners and fans. Is it too much to ask not to embarrass the players you represent?

Nuggets vs. Avs: What concerns you more: The Nuggets choking in the clutch or the Avs’ power play? The Nuggets no longer feature late-game magic, as they miss too many bunnies. Even if that is fixed, it might not be enough to reach the NBA Finals. The Avs power plan remains an eyesore. The hope is that the way the Avs players operated at the Olympics will carry over. If coach Jared Bednar is smart, he will start the first practice back with a full squad by welcoming all suggestions.

Fairy tales don’t care. They will put you in the penalty box, veer a shot off the post, and crumple your body into the boards.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, the Avs’ twin superstars, will represent Team Canada. And when it comes to a gold medal, don’t they deserve this?

It is not a dream, even if pairing them together always seems like one. For the first time since 2014 in Sochi, Russia, NHL players return to the Winter Games.

This marks the sixth time the pros will participate. Canada has stood atop the podium with NHL players on three occasions.

So six days before Canada opens its schedule against the Czech Republic in Milano, Italy, it is time to interrupt our fantasy musing about this team and check reality.

MacKinnon and Makar will be surrounded by pressure.

If they want to cement their legacy in hockey lore, they must guide the Canadians to a gold medal. End of story. Period.

It is not fair. It is just who they are. They have starred on the international stage. Their names are engraved on the Stanley Cup. They powered Team Canada to the 4 Nations Face-Off crown.

The only line vacant on the Indeed resume? Olympic gold.

“Why can they handle it? The easy answer is everything. They are big-time players. Superstars in the league. That����ap what drives them, having success. And those guys don’t shy away from the moment,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They want to be a big part of it. They want to be difference makers. They are out there to compete, to win. They will continue that there. The bigger the stakes, the better they are.”

It is impossible to overstate how important winning hockey gold is to Canada. It is World Cup soccer glory for Argentina. Or Olympic hoops for USA. With the NHL standouts in the fold, Canada is the favorite. Not just because of the talent. But the odds.

For those who follow the Avs and the nightly series of Wows!, it is hard not to see MacKinnon and Makar draping themselves in glory.

And, putting American rooting interest aside, who wouldn’t want to see it? This is how it is supposed to go for the front-runner for MVP honors and the lock for the Norris Trophy, right?

For Canadians, H-E-double hockey sticks, yes.

“The first thing I am looking forward to is playing with the best players in Canada and being a part of something much bigger than the Avalanche or any NHL team, really. It’s your whole country,” MacKinnon said after the Avs’ victory on Wednesday night. “Obviously, hockey in Canada, there is nothing quite like it. It’s kind of like football down here. It’s a big deal. There is a lot of pressure on us. It kind of brings the whole country together no matter what’s going on.”

There is a kid-on-Christmas-morning feel to the Olympics. It is special. Unique. No way around it.

Makar has dreamed of this moment since he was a child playing video games against his brother, Taylor. While the soft-spoken Cale calls the opportunity “a lot of fun,” Taylor knows better than anyone what this means to him.

“I vividly remember the 2010 Olympics (in Vancouver), watching that with him when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal. We have always played the NHL video game together, going against each other as Team Canada One and Team Canada Two. Yep, the same team. It����ap pretty amazing to see him get to do it now,” said Taylor, an Avs rookie. “It is a massive deal. It’s the biggest sporting event you can do, playing for Canada in the Olympics. It’s hard to describe it.”

Cale Makar still has visions of Crosby spinning off the boards and ripping a wrister into the back of the net to beat Team USA in the overtime classic. An entire country let out a roar, including the Makar boys.

“Yeah, of course, I remember 2010, obviously, being on home soil in Vancouver. It was pretty special to see from a kid’s eyes,” Cale Makar said. “It was really cool.”

Even with concerns about the ice and rink size in Italy — “It’ll change things but who cares,” MacKinnon said — the anticipation for these Olympics has us frothing.

The 4 Nations Face-Off ripped the fake smiles off. Team Canada and Team USA fought three times in nine seconds in Montreal as it was best-on-best, a decade in the cauldron stewing. The Americans won, then the Canadians repaid the favor, claiming the championship in a 3-2 overtime victory. MacKinnon won tournament MVP honors.

Now, MacKinnon and Makar are back again. Avs fans know, but will the rest of the world realize what they are watching? Will their greatness be appreciated by folks tuning into hockey for the first time?

MacKinnon and Makar are legit in every way. But that means the expectations for at least one gold are here in their first chance, and will remain until that medal hangs around their necks.

“You are seeing some of the best, generational talents. We are witness to greatness every single night,” Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. “We were talking about it the other day, 2010 and Sidney Crosby’s golden goal. That kind of stuff. Every time these guys go they have a chance to cement themselves in history. It is there for them, and that����ap exciting.”

MacKinnon had a career-high 51 goals and a franchise-record 140 points in 2023-24, but Auston Matthews had the most goals (69), Connor McDavid had the most assists (100) and Nikita Kucherov had the most points (144). The Colorado Avalanche superstar had the best all-around case for MVP, and collected a little more than 70% of the first-place votes.

The 2025-26 season reached its league-wide midpoint Saturday. If the voters had to choose the MVP of this season to date Sunday, MacKinnon should be the top choice by an even greater margin.

There are a few other candidates who are all having wonderful seasons. MacKinnon’s consistency, a significant part of his candidacy two years ago, remains a big part of why he’s the most valuable player. But the statistical dominance this season, beyond goals and points, helps him clear the field with (relative) ease.

Let’s start with the easy stuff. MacKinnon had 34 goals on Saturday morning, which was nine more than any other player. He was tied with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid atop the scoring race at 70 points, though the latter has played two more games.

The column next to points on the league’s website is plus-minus, which is the RBI of hockey, though there are other ways to better quantify a player’s on-ice impact.

Still, it is stunning to see the two best players in the world, McDavid and MacKinnon, tied for the league lead in points and then plus-51, followed by plus-1. MacKinnon could be the first player to finish plus-65 or better since 1987.

The next five players in points — McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, Leon Draisaitl, Mikko Rantanen and Nikita Kucherov — are a combined plus-39. Plus-minus is an antiquated stat, but some voters still use it as a data point.

It’s also not wrong, in this case. MacKinnon has been the most dominant player at even strength this season by a wide margin. It’s historical levels of greatness. His even-strength goals (27) alone would lead the NHL. His even-strength points (54) alone would place him tied for sixth.

Here are the really staggering numbers, though, all courtesy of . MacKinnon was 80th in 5-on-5 total ice time on Saturday morning among all players.

Colorado has scored 72 even-strength goals with MacKinnon on the ice. The Avs have allowed 18. The next closest non-Avs player in even-strength goals scored is Celebrini, at 54.

Cale Makar was on the ice for the most even-strength goals in the NHL last season … with 102. MacKinnon led the league two years ago en route to MVP honors with 122. He’s on pace for 151 this year.

The Avs have created 491 scoring chances when MacKinnon is on the ice at even strength. Again, that is the most in the NHL — Quinn Hughes is second at 480, in 143 more minutes of ice time. The next-closest forward is McDavid, with 66 fewer (425) in 72 more minutes.

Forwards are not supposed to lead the NHL in these accumulation statistics. Defensemen play more, but MacKinnon is having yet another conventional wisdom-busting kind of season, only amped to 11.

The power play, or more precisely the Avs’ collective struggles on it, is the only reason anyone is close to MacKinnon in the scoring race. MacKinnon has been on the ice for 20 power-play goals, which is tied for 38th in the league, while his 16 power-play points are tied for 10th.

Colorado’s issues with the man advantage are multiple, but bad shooting luck is a part of it. The Avs are shooting 11.05% when MacKinnon is on the ice with the power play. Of the 44 players who have been on for 20 extra-man goals or more, the next lowest is 13.25%. McDavid and his PP1 pals in Edmonton are all above 22%.

So who are the other top candidates for league MVP honors at the midway point of the season? McDavid and Celebrini are probably MacKinnon’s toughest competition, with a smattering of other players involved like Kucherov, Moritz Seider in Detroit and Florida’s Brad Marchand.

Everyone else’s case relies heavily on narrative, and the longstanding, misplaced idea of placing the most value on helping a mediocre team sneak into the playoffs. This season, even more so, because the extreme parity around the league … except at the top of the Central Division.

The middle of this league is so compressed that any team that makes the playoffs as a wild-card, and likely even the other third-place teams outside the Central, will do so in part because of far more luck and variance than anyone from those fan bases will want to admit, and not because of the heroics of one particular player.

There is also the “how bad would this team be without player X” argument, which ranks right there among hypothetical, unquantifiable arguments with the ones SEC football fans love to make until their teams lose actual games.

Celebrini is having one of the greatest seasons by a teenager of all time. He’s reviving one of the most underrated hockey markets in the sport in rapid fashion.

He has several admirers in the Colorado locker room and will be the best player in the sport when it is time for McDavid and MacKinnon to take a slight step back.

If the San Jose Sharks make the playoffs, there will be a strong push to make Celebrini the MVP, in a similar fashion to when Sidney Crosby won at 19 years old in 2007 after making the playoffs in his second season. But Crosby led the league with 120 points, six more than anyone else in 2006-07. He didn’t have Prime MacKinnon or Prime McDavid to deal with.

Celebrini should be an MVP candidate, regardless of whether the Sharks finish seventh or 11th in the Western Conference. If the vote were today, he should collect a bunch of second and third-place votes. If a voter puts him first or considers him the favorite right now solely because a coin flip or three went San Jose’s way, that’s bad process.

The narrative for McDavid is that he has dragged the Oilers out of an early-season funk and into the Pacific Division lead. He also just had 31 points in 11 games, which is remarkable.

This is an 82-game (or in this case, 41-game) award, though. MacKinnon was the most deserving player two years ago in part because of how dominant he was across the full season.

Edmonton has scored 47 even-strength goals with McDavid on the ice and allowed 46. His expected goals for percentage is better (53.76%) but still not in the same league as MacKinnon’s (62.08%). Celebrini’s xGF% at even strength is 45.79%.

It’s not just the Oilers goaltending or poor play by teammates. Also, we have the ability to define individual value in better ways now than we have in the past.

It’s the most valuable player of the league, not the best player who had substandard teammates, award. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn released the midseason Net Rating for all of the players on the big four Olympic teams Friday, so that includes all of the MVP candidates except for Seider (and maybe Jason Roberton).

This is his version of an all-encompassing, WAR-like stat. MacKinnon’s . McDavid is at plus-30.1, and Celebrini is at plus-23.2.

Draisaitl led all skaters last season at plus-30. McDavid led the league two years ago at plus-33, with MacKinnon at plus-32. That’s what an MVP-level season has rated out at the past two years.

What MacKinnon is doing this year is on a different level. He’s the midseason MVP, and the debate should really start with who would be second.